Katherine Doyley Dyer (b.c. 1585-1654) notable for the epitaph she placed on her husband's tomb at
Colmworth,
Bedfordshire, England
Katherine was one of the four daughters of John Doyley (d. 1593) and Anne Barnard, and was a co-heir of the Doyley estate at
Merton. After the death of John Doyley, in 1601, her sister Margaret Doyley married
Edward Harington of Ridlington and her mother Anne Barnard married
James Harington (1542–1614), the father of Edward Harington, in a double wedding.[1] Her other sisters were Anne and Elizabeth.[2]
On 25 February 1602 Katherine Doyley married Sir William Dyer, son of Sir
Richard Dyer of Great Staughton.[3]
Sir William died on 9 April 1621. In 1641 Katherine placed the epitaph, which she may have composed, known as "My Dearest Dust" on their monument at the
Church of St Denys, Colmworth.[4]
If a large hart, joined with a noble minde
Shewing true worth unto all good inclin’d
If faith in friendship, justice unto all,
Leave such a memory as we may call
Happy, thine is; then pious marble keepe
His just fame waking, though his lov’d dust sleepe.
And though death can devoure all that hath breath,
In her will, Katherine mentioned, "her losses had become very great since those last troubles" of the
Civil War. She died in 1654.[8]
Family
The seven children of Katherine Doyley Dyer and William Dyer commemorated by effigy on the tomb at Colmworth were;
Sir Ludowick Dyer (10 March 1606[9]-1670), who married Elizabeth Yelverton, and was the first and last
Dyer baronet of Staughton. Katherine and Elizabeth were mentioned with other women of the Harington / Sidney family in the will of William Mason of Westminster in 1630.[10][11] Ludowick and Elizabeth's only son Henry died in 1637 and is commemorated on the monument at Colmworth.[12]
Doyley Dyer (1613-1684).
Richard Dyer (b. 1608) married Elizabeth (d. 1685).
James Dyer (b. 1617).
Anne or Anna Dyer (1611-1684), married William Gery of Bushmeade Priory. Their children included; William, Richard, Katherine, Ann, and Mary
^Susan Dunn Hensley, 'Katherine D'Oyley Dyer', in Carole Levin, Anna Riehl Bertolet, Jo Eldridge Carney, A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen (Abingdon, 2017) p. 571.
^Jane Stevenson & Peter Davidson, Early Modern Women Poets (1520-1700): An Anthology (Oxford, 2001). pp. 223-4.
^Susan Dunn Hensley, 'Katherine D'Oyley Dyer', in Carole Levin, Anna Riehl Bertolet, Jo Eldridge Carney, A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen (Abingdon, 2017) p. 571.